AT&T More-or-Less Accurately Predicted the Future in 1993

In 1993, AT&T produced a series of television advertisements that surely seemed like science fiction at the time. The company proclaimed that in 25 years (that’s in 2018), AT&T would help you watch the movie you wanted to watch at any time that is convenient to you, attend a meeting remotely from your home, have telephone communications on a wristwatch, keep an eye on your home when you are not at home, and even get directions from your car. Indeed, such things were unheard of only 25 years ago.

1. The ads claim that all these services would someday be brought to you by AT&T. In fact, most everything described in these advertisements were brought to you by other companies, not by AT&T.

2. One advertisement claims that within 25 years you would be able to “touch your baby” (which means to remotely watch a live video feed of your baby) from a phone booth. When was the last time you used a phone booth? In most cities of 2018, you can’t even FIND a phone booth but you can “touch your baby” from almost anyplace by using your cell phone.

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I haven’t seen a phone booth in a long time. Tuesday I did see a sole lonely stainless steel post mounted pay phone in the parking area of the Palisades Parkway Visitors Center near Anthony Wayne State Park (NY). This is a good thing because cell coverage is poor to non existent within the Bear Mountain / Harriman Park area.

He has been involved in genealogy for more than 35 years. He
has worked in the computer industry for more than 50 years in hardware,
software, and managerial positions. By the early 1970s, Dick was already
using a mainframe computer to enter his family data on punch cards. He
built his first home computer in 1980.